Tuesday, 10 May 2011

The photo above shows Bournemouth's ONLY piece of decent, desirable, segregated, arterial cycle lane. I won't say it gives priority to cyclists as it isn't long enough to reach any junctions. In fact, it's about 20-30m long. It only runs on one side of the road. When it ends, it turns into the standard, useless, narrow, dangerous, advisory lane we are used to. Here's a view from the far end looking back...

Unfortunately you can't see all of the lane in the picture as it's hidden behind a large roadsign. Turning back to face SW down Christchurch Rd we see another sign...

What handy places these cycle lanes are for putting roadwork signs!

My journey to Boscombe was along the recommended cycle route from Winton. Signage isn't too bad west of the A338 but on the eastern side it's virtually non-existant. Rather than use the (crowded) Ashley Road or (rat-run) Cleveland Road, I took the only crossing in between them, the bridge over the railway at the end of Palmerston Road...

For some reason this crossing is designated as 'no cycling' (although the DofT signage is so faded there is no red circle around the bike). It's wider than most pavements, the path taken across zig-zags which means it's virtually impossible to ride fast and visibility through the railings of pedestrians ahead is very good. In fact, the only hinderances are the scaffolding rails at either end. Why can't the council simply paint white bikes on the surface to make it a 'safe, shared use' facility?

Just after this we meet a contender for the title of 'Bournemouth's shortest cycle lane' straddling the pavement that divides the two halves of Boscombe Grove Road...

The eastbound section is about 3m long. If you look at it using Google Street View, you can see it puts you on Curzon Rd going the wrong way against the traffic (it's a one-way street)!